Game Of Thrones star Iwan Rheon – who played Ramsay Bolton – has warned about the “urgent” threat of wildlife decline caused by climate change.

The Olivier award-winning Welsh actor said an ecological crisis could see birds, plants and animals at risk of extinction within 20 years if more is not done to halt the decline of numbers.

Rheon has starred in E4’s Misfits, BBC One’s Our Girl, and appeared in hit show Game Of Thrones, spoke on Wednesday from the Senedd, home of the Welsh Assembly, on World Environment Day.

Frightening

Rheon joined the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to urge the Welsh and UK governments to do more to tackle climate change and make sure it retained and expanded on EU environment protection even after Brexit.

Rheon told the Press Association: “It’s very urgent now we protect wildlife in Wales and all over the world. Every species is in danger.

“We’re seeing loads of species that are in danger of being extinct forever and it’s important for the future generations to be able to enjoy nature and the beautiful wildlife we have here in Wales, in Britain and all over the world.”

He added: “We’re seeing some frightening statistics for a lot of species that look like they aren’t probably going to make it, here in Wales as well.

Protections

“We’ve got about 20 years I think to fix this problem otherwise it would have gone too far.”

Rheon said the public could undertake “small changes” to help including recycling and considering their use of single-use plastics, but called for pressure to be put onto governments to put restoration and protection of nature at the heart of future legislation.

He also called on politicians to ensure environmental protections were retained after the UK leaves the European Union, saying: “Once we’re not involved, if anyone can work out what to do about this, if we’re not part of EU, which has incredibly strict laws on the environment, we have to come up with our own laws.

“It’s important we put pressure on the government to think about everything through nature and ecological ways, and how we affect the environment around us and if we go too far now which we’re about to do, it will be too late and there won’t be any coming back.”

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Adam Hale is a reporter with the Press Association.